Saving rare fish could cost utility $100 million — Federal warning about possible extinction is a first
By SAMMY FRETWELL
Sunday, Aug. 22, 2010 A push by federal biologists to protect a rare fish from extinction in South Carolina could cost the Santee Cooper power company more than $100 million and delay approval of a license the company needs to operate dams at lakes Marion and Moultrie. A federal study released last month said Santee Cooper must do more to protect the shortnose sturgeon if the federally endangered species is to survive in South Carolina, which has one of the few remaining reproducing populations in the Southeast, centered near lakes Marion and Moultrie. It’s believed to be the first time federal officials have warned a Southeastern utility that its dam operations could contribute to the extinction of the shortnose sturgeon in the region. Santee Cooper is seeking a new federal permit to continue operating its dams on the lakes, built in the 1940s to generate hydropower. As a condition of the new permit, the National Marine Fisheries Service wants the state-owned utility to increase the flow of water from the dams into rivers and to install fish passage devices to help sturgeon get over the dams. Fewer than 1,000 shortnose sturgeon are estimated to live in central South Carolina’s main river basins, primarily because dams have kept them from migrating from salty coastal estuaries to inland freshwater shoals, where they spawn. “The $100 million might be a starting point; it’s going to be expensive,’’ Santee Cooper spokeswoman Mollie Gore said of the company’s estimated cost. “We haven’t taken it so far as to determine the impact on (customers’) rates. But you are talking about an amount of money that would be difficult to absorb.’’ Although Santee Cooper has proposed some changes in how it proposes to protect the shortnose sturgeon, those are not adequate, the fisheries service says. “We have determined the proposed action (to continue operating Santee Cooper dams) is likely to appreciably reduce the likelihood of both the survival and recovery of the shortnose sturgeon in the wild,’’ according to a July 13 letter from the fisheries service to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Rarely does the service issue a report with such strong language. …
